WHEN TWO GENRES MARRY
Also for: Macintosh
Ancient though Quest for Glory I: So You Want To Be A Hero may be,
it's actually a remake. The original release, from 1989, was titled
Hero's Quest to line up with the rest of the
Sierra On-line catalogue: King's Quest, Space Quest,
Police Quest, etc. But because Milton Bradley already owned a board game licence titled Hero Quest, Sierra had to change the brand to what the series would finally be called:
Quest for Glory.
On the surface, Quest for Glory may appear almost inseparable from adventure games like King's Quest, but underneath a rudimentary RPG
engine lurks. Before entering the fantasy world you create a blonde,
cape-wielding hero in a bona-fide character creator. Choosing from three
different classes - fighter, mage or thief - you allocate skill points to fighting, defense, magic, lockpicking, etc, specializing or multiclassing to
your heart's content. The fun thing, in theory, about Quest for Glory is how
your choices impact the upcoming game. Not by a lot, mind you, but certain
puzzle solutions and sidequests change with your class.
Structurally, the game is clearly inspired by King's Quest. You start out in
the very small town of Spielburg, where you can register in the adventurer's
guild, pick up a few quests and equip yourself before exploring screen after
screen of the wilderness outside the gates. The world seems inspired by central
and eastern European folklore (Baba Yaga makes an appearance), with naming conventions (Baron von Spielburg,
Heinrich Pferdefedern, Schultz Meistersson) and nature hinting of Bavaria (I say, having never visited there myself.)
It might be a small open world, but it's pretty condensed. I enjoy what little
we get; the sense of being part of a fairytale, the magical creatures, the
beasts, the sun-kissed town and forests. As night gradually falls, your eyes start
scanning the environment. Tougher monsters awaken and spirits start haunting
the area around the graveyard. If you fall asleep in an unsafe area, the night
gaunt might end your life. Empty wilderness areas make more sense in Quest
for Glory than they do in the traditional point-and-clickers, as constant
random encounters end up in battles, rewarding you with loot money and combat skill progression.
This remake updates the visuals from the original's EGA to VGA resolution, which looks nice
if you squint, and changes the interface from text parser to the more
streamlined Sierra point-and-click control scheme. This removes some
initial hurdles, but I still find the interface, with its action commands and
inventory hidden in a pop-up window at the top of the screen, a bit clunky.
Right-clicking toggles between the same commands, but that's hardly better.
Playing as a fighter, like I did, is straightforward and easy. Unfortunately,
this caused me to miss out on a few screens and quests. How many and exactly
what they were I'm not entirely sure, but a few doors in town were locked,
ripe for a lockpicking thief. And the magic store owner told me about a maze
of trials I could try, had I the power to cast spells. I
won't hold it against the game; one playthrough is short, a handful of hours at most, making it very
replayable.
When I was young, I would have loved the idea of combining genres this way. Both point-and-click
adventures and RPG:s were emerging as my favorite types of games back then. But mixing genres often meant you
got two half-assed systems instead of one solid. Unfortunately, Quest for Glory cannot escape this; neither the puzzles nor the combat feel very engaging.
Let's start with the puzzles. They're either extremely basic or so obscure
that an NPC explicitly has to spell it out. Say, for instance, you need an
item that's glinting in the sun high up on a tree branch. No matter your character build, it's
not too hard to figure out what to do. A fighter can throw a rock to knock it
down, a nimble thief can climb the tree to grab it, and a mage can simply cast
the "fetch"-spell. I like the approach of multiple solutions, but neither of
them pose any challenge whatsoever, making for a somewhat lacklustre adventure game
experience.
Other puzzles are so advanced you need step-by-step instructions to solve
them. Well, the game makes sure some character in the game can provide them.
If you need a potion to remove a curse, the healer will tell you the
ingredients, and your only task is to run around the wilderness and find them.
Once you do, obtaining them is about as easy as the aforementioned tree
puzzle. Most inventory items are resources, like food, money, weapons and armor. The few that are puzzle-related you only have to give to the right recipient.
Combat follows the same simplistic beat. Although it allows for a couple of
defensive maneuvers as well as a powerful slash and a quick stab, I found little
reason to do anything but stab. Waiting for the enemy to drop their guard with
a sluggish attack animation, I went in for the jugular before they had time to
finish their move. Frankly, I could see no better way. The enemy animations
are so unclear and jerky, it's hard to understand how and when to dodge or block. Luckily, the battles are over in a jiffy.
One of the quests inolves storming a brigand camp. This comes with a few
ridiculous screens of swashbuckling nonsense, a sort of faux-action scene
where you have to make progress through the camp whilst escaping the guards.
The interface doesn't suit this sort of gameplay at all. First, you have to figure out
what to do, which is almost impossible unless you die and get the "Game over"
textbox hints. Then you have to time the input commands right. Exactly when
and how is far from obvious. All the while, enemies come barging in from all
directions, or shoot arrows. This requires constant save-scumming. I didn't sign up for a round of Dragon's Lair in a point-and-click setting.
By today's standards this gameplay might not make the cut, but I still have some
fondness for its matinée spirit, established by the main theme's boisterous
catchiness. It reflects in the colorful world and its inhabitants as you start
interacting with the world. Easter eggs are everywhere, and careful investigation rewards the player with funny descriptions. The dialogue is unusually comedic with an
abundance of puns, particularly from the reclusive wizard Erasmus in his tower
east of Spielburg. He, along with his rat familiar Fenrus, is easily the best character in the game.
Quest for Glory I: So You Want To Be A Hero feels like a proof of concept; a
short, balanced experience in a familiar setting to ease players into this,
back then, revolutionary blend of genres. This was a risk in those
days, which probably is why the rest of it feels so risk-free and basic. While
its standard mechanics and puzzle design feels very minimalistic, it still earns its identity as a free-spirited adventure. Behind all its flaws and
simplicity, it's a fun world to explore, rewarding experimentation and
investigation with uplifting humor.
[All screenshots are lifted from www.mobygames.com]
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